Designervans Desert Rose

A Bloomin' Beauty

Rural Australia is home to some of the nation's best kept secrets, closely guarded by vigilant locals who like to keep these gems all to themselves. In some cases, RV building forms part of this 'conspiracy' of silence. Indeed, if you scratch the surface, you'll find some excellent RV builders who you've probably never heard of, but are constantly busy.

DesignerVans Australia sparked my interest at the 2007 Bendigo RV and Camping Leisurefest in regional Vic. The manufacturer from Wangaratta, Vic, had fifth wheelers on display as well as a mix of holiday tourers.

Scott French, partner Barbara Rourke and their team have been flat-out meeting demand for their custom-designed caravans, and are equipped to repair caravans and other types of RVs as well.

The 21ft (6.4m) Desert Rose, subject of this review, was built for Aileen and Wayne, a couple who had sold their farm to fulfil an ambition of exploring Australia by road. The van is designed to live in – and there's no doubt they'll live well. The refinements and fitout are remarkable but not excessive. It is a manageable unit for their tow vehicle, a Nissan Patrol.

DesignerVans Australia builds its own chassis. This one was a hot dipped galvanised tandem with 150mm stacked main rails made from Australian steel, with a grid of 50mm square tubing supports for the floor. The A-frame carries a pair of 9kg gas cylinders in quick-release clamps, and a stoneguard behind a 3500kg standard ball coupling at the front end. At the rear, a pair of lockable jerrycan holders sit forward of two mounted spare wheels on a full-width bumper bar. Cruisemaster independent airbag suspension carries the van, and because the new owners have no intention of being confined to tarred roads, it will certainly be busy underneath the more glamorous superstructure.

The alloy six-stud wheels and LT265/75 x R16 Cooper Discovery ATR tyres are identical to those fitted to the Nissan. Big 12in electric brakes complete the undercarriage picture. The two metal-protected 80L water tanks – one behind the axles, one ahead of the axles – have an in-cabin indicator.

Cabin construction is, for the most part, conventional timber framing with aluminium cladding outside and 3mm ply veneered internal walls. The roof section, however, departs from the more conventional by incorporating an aluminium framework of selected spacings to suit roof hatches and air-conditioners.

The ceiling and the roof skin are glued to this framework, resulting in a roof capable of supporting the weight of an adult. Scott developed this design, saying he was dissatisfied with the performance of some timber-framed ceilings and roofs that sagged over time. It makes retrofitting air-conditioners and hatches easier, as the aluminium openings are already present.

CREATURE COMFORTS
Inside, the Desert Rose is a surprise package. The full-width front bathroom is set out in a slightly unorthodox way. It uses space cleverly, resulting in a snug, attractive facility, although not completely closed off from the bedroom. The east-west bed is not bedevilled by a protruding wheel box as others are – the floor is flat in all places. A bonus feature is the extra height of the hanging space in the robes flanking the bed. And in the bedroom, a nicely placed Daewoo LCD TV/DVD with remotes is sure to encourage bedtime viewing. How indulgent!

Beyond the privacy curtain between the forward bedroom and living area, are a sink, four-burner cooktop with oven and griller, and microwave on the offside and a 185L two-door Waeco refrigerator/freezer, and a floor-to-ceiling pull-out wire basket pantry on the nearside. It would be tempting to fill this enormous pantry and unwittingly overload it with canned foods or similar heavy items. That's an issue to be mindful of if travelling on rough roads, as these fittings are generally built for use in a house rather than in a mobile application.

However, it is a great space-saver and very handy, provided it is not over-burdened.

The overhead cupboards are faced with a unique inset. Instead of timber, they have punched, powder-coated steel infills. For a while I could not work out what the material for the infill was, although it seemed somehow familiar. It turned out to be the old-style meat safe mesh, and it looked fine in this role.

Adjacent to the pull-out pantry is a benchtop with cupboard under, but the surprise is the wall-mounted 22in LCD flat-panel integrated multimedia computer, DVD and TV with in-built camera and card reader. This computer is no slouch: it runs an Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 processor with two DDR-11 1GB of RAM and a 250GB of hard disk drive. It has wireless keyboard and mouse, plus remote control for TV/DVD/CD functions. Travellers can stay connected to the internet no matter where they are.

This panel PC/TV/DVD provides a sound source for the Yamaha Home Theatre Cinema Station, which in turn fills the van with Dolby surround sound via a Yamaha five-speaker plus sub-bass sound system. The result is exceptional viewing and/or listening for a caravan setting. External speakers are located under the awning.

Above the microwave is an empty shelf with cables and unused powerpoints, where the computer printer and its supplies will be installed. It would seem that most things have been thought of. In keeping with the ambition of independence for the caravan, these appliances are supplied with mains voltage power courtesy of a DC-AC modified sinewave 720W converter.

KEEP IT RUNNING
With all this gear on-board, power requirements for away-from-town operation is a consideration. The front boot holds a pair of Trojan deep-cycle 130Ah batteries and a pair of 120W solar panels tops up the batteries through a ProStar-15 controller. A higher capacity controller would make full use of the solar power output.

When mains power is available, the caravan's low voltage system depends on a 20A Smartcharger, which under some circumstances might not keep up with demand.

Clearly, some time has been spent thinking about what facilities this caravan should have. It is likely to be something of a magnet in caravan parks, and entertainment should be one of its specialities. And speaking of entertaining, there's an external pull-out Bushman barbecue with roasting hood just outside the door.

Outside entertaining is assisted by the Dometic electric awning, which requires only the push of a button for it to be set up. And cleaning up afterwards would be a breeze – there's an external hot water service outlet with mixer (and hand shower)  in addition to the internal hot water supplied by the Attwood 23L gas-electric unit.

Creature comforts include a roof-mounted Dometic 3300 reverse-cycle air-conditioner and a Dometic diesel heater. The seating is comfortable and there's space for four to sit in the L-shaped layout. Both an illuminated grab handle and a step light make night-time entries and exits safer.

A Lemair on-board washing machine is well positioned just inside the door.

An additional surprise for me was the extent of preparation of the chassis: instead of having exposed wiring and plumbing, or threading these through the chassis, a separate steel tube, actually welded and galvanised into the chassis, runs parallel to the chassis rail with the express duty of carrying wiring and plumbing. An excellent idea.

The pair of rear-mounted spare wheels and the lockable jerry can holders extended a little further from the chassis than I would prefer as they create considerable load for the bumper supports. When I mentioned this, Scott said it had already been noted and some alterations would be made prior to delivery.

THE BOTTOM LINE
At the outset, I mentioned the almost secret status of some regional builders. If more gems like the DesignerVans Desert Rose are in production, then it is going to be very hard to maintain the secrecy.

I WOULD HAVE LIKED

DesignerVans Australia
62 Newman Street, Wangaratta, Vic 3676
designervans@bigpond.com